Ever wanted to back up your Mac, but Time Machine fell short? D?j? Vu is
here …

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The arrival of Leopard signaled that Apple was finally getting serious about helping users back up their data. Prior to that, .Mac users had Backup, but in practice, this application offered much, and in times of crisis delivered little. That didn't stop third-party developers from coming to the rescue, though. Whether it was CarbonCopyCloner, SuperDuper, or my personal favorite, Déjà Vu, there was usually a program out there that could fit your needs.

The changes that came with the release of 10.5 ended up breaking Déjà Vu, but Propaganda Productions has released a new, Leopard-compliant version. "So what?" I can hear you thinking, "I have Time Machine now." And while that's true, Time Machine doesn't meet quite everyone's needs. Although it's very handy for backing up to an external drive, many were disappointed to find that backing up over networks via SMB was not supported.

Déjà Vu, on the other hand, is quite happy copying your data to a Linux or Windows server, in addition to local disks. It works as a preference pane, and can be set to do daily, weekly, monthly, or manual backups. It's not quite all roses though; thanks to limitations with SMB, files with names over 255 characters won't be copied. But if you've been looking for a way to back your Mac up to a non-Mac network location, you might want to experience Déjà Vu for yourself.